Cebu Greats sweep Batangas, barge into South Division semis

CEBU, Philippines — The fifth-seeded Cebu Greats completed a two-game sweep of the fourth-ranked Batangas City Tanduay Athletics with a thrilling 70-67 victory in their best-of-three South Division quarterfinal series in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) 2026 Season on Wednesday night, October 14, at the Batangas City Coliseum.

Limuel Tampus stole the show after pouring in 12 of 14 points in the fourth quarter, along with six rebounds and one assist, to power Cebu into the semifinals.

Tampus drained a three-pointer to tie the game at 61-all at the final 3:16 mark before scoring on a layup to give Cebu a 65-61 lead with 35 seconds left.

Dhon Reverente sank two free throws to stretch Cebu’s advantage to 67-61 with 14.2 seconds remaining.

Batangas fought back, pulling within two points at 67-69 on three consecutive free throws by Mark Niel Cruz, but time was running out.

In the final second, Ron Dennison split his free throws, sealing Cebu’s pulsating win.

“After so many struggles since the start of the season, we made it this far. Walang bitawan ito,” said Cebu Greats team owner Sam Lato.

Wowie Escocio finished with 11 points, while Mark Meneses posted a double-double of 10 points and 16 rebounds laced with two assists and two blocks as Cebu surpassed its quarterfinal appearance in the 2019 MPBL Season.

Ichie Altamirano also contributed 10 points, three rebounds and three assists for the Greats, who will face the winner of the Quezon Huskers-Zamboanga Sikat series in the semis.

Zamboanga, fueled by 15 points, four rebounds and seven assists from Forthsky Padrigao, lived to fight another day after beating Quezon in Game 2, 67-64.